I can't say how sorry I am. You've had to wait for about a month for an update, and to me, that is unacceptable. Now, the flashback in this is dedicated to Lightning and Blossoms, who gave me the depressed Alex idea. Rider Rules, I'm sorry. I will be doing a big prank, just not on the Head of MI6.

I am also sorry about the confusion with the Heads of MI6. Mrs. Jones is the head, not Blunt. I made that mistake last chapter, the prank was on Jones, not Blunt, and anything that said Blunt, was Jones. Sorry!

Santa did not, unfortunately, give me rights, so I do not own Alex Rider. Eh, maybe I'll get them on my birthday. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

Alex Rider and Ben Daniels heads' swiveled around in unision as the doors to the bank opened. They then stood up at the same time as well and started walking torwards K-Unit.

K-Unit looked around the plain, boring bank in search of Fox and Cub, and quickly found them as the two were walking over to them. They walked over to join them, and watched as the older whispered something to the younger, who promptly groaned and grumbled something back.

Ben sighed in relief as Alex agreed to his asking to save the pranks for later, even if he did so reluctantly.

"Fox, Cub." Wolf greeted the two spies as the two groups reached each other.

"K-Unit." They greeted, once again in unision, which was kind of creepy.

Fox glanced around, then said, "Let's do final introductions and such in Jones' office. We don't want to make a scene or anything."

Puzzled about the 'make a scene' part, but willing to comply, Wolf agreed, speaking for his whole unit.

Fox sighed in relief again as Wolf agreed, while they knew that Alex had tangled with orginisations, they didn't know which. MI6 had at least taken that much out of his file. 'But,' he thought, 'they'll know soon, because Alex will freak out about Scorpion.'

Mrs. Jones sat in her office sucking a peppermint that she had popped in only moments before. While it had started as a young teenager rebeling against her parents, who were dentists and despised sugar, it had soon developed into an addiction, and she hadn't been able to stop.

Even when she heard the rumors traveling- 'I bet it's some kind of gadget from Smithers' and 'It's probably to take the taste of death out of her mouth.' -she hadn't been able to stop. In fact, Tulip Jones suspected that when her time came, she would be laid in a coffin with a peppermint between her teeth.

But she couldn't dwell on the past and future. Not now, when she needed her head stuck in the present. The Head of MI6 had asked for Agent Rider's old unit, and that was what she got. What they didn't tell her, until it was too late to switch to another unit, that is, was that Agent Daniels' replacement was codenamed Scorpion. So now, she needed to prepare herself for what was to come.

Sighing, she said, "Come in." in response to the knock on the door.

Fox led the way into Jones' room, sitting down in a seat next to Alex.

"Well?" Alex asked, staring at Scorpion. "Are you going to tell me your codename, or not? Because I am pretty sure you already know mine."

The SAS soldier nodded, and told him, "My name is Scorpion."

Alex went still, and a look of horror crossed over his face before he bolted from the room. Fox, used to this from whenever Cub encountered one of his phobias that he had due to missions, leapt after him, chasing him down the hall.

In the office, Scorpion sat with a confused expression on his face. "What did I do?"

Mrs. Jones sighed in relief. 'That went better than I thought it would.' She thought.

Snake, as medic, and recognizing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a panic attack, sped off after Fox.

Wolf and Eagle, wanting to know what just happened, stayed.

"What just happened?" Wolf questioned, staring at Jones.

She sighed in response and told them, "Scorpion did nothing. It is his codename that is the problem."

"Meaning?" Wolf demanded rudely. Anything that affected one team member hit the rest, and like it or not, Cub was part of the unit, as was Scorpion. Anyone would want to know what happened, and as unit leader, he wanted to know twice as much as anyone else.

Mrs. Jones sighed again and said, "The codename 'Scorpion' is too close to a terrorist orginisation Alex encountered more than once. To make matters worse, the scorpion was their symbol, and they killed all of Alex's family- his father, mother, uncle, housekeeper who was like a sister, and, in a way, his godfather."

Scorpion's face was ashen. "What?" He breathed.

Meanwhile, Wolf and Eagle's faces were gray as well. "But that would be SCORPIA!" Wolf cried.

Jones nodded, and told them, "Unfortunately. You see, Agent Rider is responsible for the downfall of SCORPIA. He encountered them more than once, took them down each time, and survived. He is the reason SCORPIA's reputation is shot."

"Choose a series of curse words and place them here," said Wolf, Eagle, and Scorpion.

Meanwhile, Ben finally managed to catch Alex and pulled him into a corner. He knew exactly what to do, unfortunately from experience.

-flashback-

Ben leapt from his chair in the house as he saw Alex dashing inside, racing to intercept him. When he finally managed to, he pulled him into a corner and sat down cross-legged, pulling Alex down with him and pushing his head between his legs as the boy sat on him.

"Breath." He comanded, hugging the shaking boy to him as best he could. "Nothing's going to hurt you here. Breath. Eich bod yn ddiogel."

He kept repeating it until Alex had calmed down. 'Eich bod yn ddiogel.' was 'you are safe' in Welsh, one of the few languages Alex knew fluently but that had nothing to do with any missions. Ben had learned early on that it helped Alex to calm down, in fact not a week after he moved in with the boy- he figured familiar surroundings would help him recover.

The procedures he had just followed were getting very routine now, as well. Too routine.

-end flashback-

Now, he was repeating these same words, doing the same procedure all over again. Run. Catch. Sit. Head between the knees. Hugging and talking. Wait. Repeat next time a phobia comes up.

"Is he ok?" A voice panted, and Ben looked up to see Snake hovering behind him nervously.

"He will be." Fox replied. "This happens all the time, unfortunately."

"PTSD?" The medic questioned.

Sighing, the old communications man for K-Unit replied, "Yes. It was starting to fade, but..." He trailed of. Snake would know what he meant. They had trained and done one tour in Afghanistan together before he left for MI6, after all.

Snake nodded thoughtfully, then jolted out of his thoughts as Cub asked, untangling himself from his guardian, "Snake? What are you doing here?"

He opened his mouth to say, "Well, I am the medic of the unit, and you're in the unit, so...," but he never got the chance.

Fox interrupted him by asking, "Snake doesn't bother you?"

Alex shook his head and said, "It was the Snakehead, not Snake."

Snake gaped at him and asked, "You tangled with a Snakehead?"

Cub shrugged and told him, "The one and only mission I did with Fox."

"Come on." Fox said. "The others are probably waiting, and we need to go over the file with you, Cub."

"There's a file?" Alex asked in amazement. "I thought this was protection duty."

There we are! Completely done, longest chapter by a lot- 1,187 words, not counting the ANs. Woohoo!

Once again, sorry for the wait and Heads mix up.